#Middlebury #AgentOrange #VA #Veterans
VETERANS POST
By Freddy Groves
If you served in Vietnam, were exposed to an herbicide like Agent Orange, got sick and submitted a claim that was denied, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was supposed to find you and offer compensation. Did they?
Specifically, after the Nehmer v. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs class action lawsuit in 1986, it was decreed that Agent Orange exposure resulted in service-connected diseases. Despite the thousands of claims that were denied, the VA was to find those veterans and pay compensation.
The eligibility requirements, per the lawsuit, were that the veteran had to have one of the covered diseases from AO exposure, the VA had to have received a claim for a service-connected disease and the claim had to have been denied.
Then, also per the lawsuit, the VA had to look for all the veterans they’d previously denied, digging through their records, without any action required on the part of the veteran (or family member, if the veteran was then deceased) – and award benefits for it. Finally, because of possible shipboard exposure to AO, and after three additional presumptive conditions were added to the list, the VA issued a press release saying they would send letters to veterans saying they would review all the records.
Enter the Office of Inspector General (OIG) to see how the VA was doing in tracking down the veterans. The result: The OIG calculates that the VA neglected to send letters to over 88,000 veterans. And the OIG calculated that 86,894 veterans were likely eligible but were not identified by the VA to have their claims looked at again.
What followed was a list of what sounds like excuses on the part of the VA as reasons they didn’t find all the veterans. You can read those for yourself in the OIG report at tinyurl.com/sd9u3net.
If you believe you qualify for benefits under Nehmer and had a denied claim for herbicide exposure and subsequent illness, call the VA. Don’t let them miss you again.
© 2024 King Features Synd., Inc.
